User blog:RRabbit42/When headcanon backfires
Everyone becomes a fan of at least one thing in their life. It can be a sport, a type of music or songs by a person or a group, a TV show or movie, a single story or a group of stories written by an author. There are times we may even be a fan of another person because they inspire us or we like what they do. The reasons are endless and so are the things we can be fans of. When we like something a lot, sometimes we might look at it and decide we like it for a different reason than most other people do. Or, we might decide that we'll interpret that subject differently, even up to the point where what we like about it is opposite of what other people like. Whether it's different by a little or a lot, it's called "headcanon". To give you an example, before the movie Zootopia came out, people were taking the little bits in the movie trailers and other information that had been released and had built up image of Mayor Lionheart where he was a horrific monster that ordered the death of the Assistant Mayor and wanted to enslave prey species like sheep and rabbits. That didn't turn out to be true, but that's what a few people thought at the time. By itself, headcanon is good. It's related to fan fiction because we're taking what someone else made and adapting it to be what we want. I wrote a series of blogs about why we need fan fiction and I'll say that headcanon can be a valid way of expressing yourself. The darker side of headcanon is when you change it into only what you believe can be right and those who don't believe like you do are wrong. The darkest side is when you expand that into a belief that the person who made what you like is wrong because they didn't make it exactly the way you've interpreted it. When headcanon changes into even the creator is wrong, then the person who likes that subject changes from being a fan into being a fanatic, in the same vein as a religious fanatic. If you saw someone marching down the street with a copy of the Bible, Quran, Vedas or any other religious text, accosting people and backing them up against fences or walls, screaming at them that they would spend eternity in torment if they don't believe what's in that book, would you want to listen to them? If you told them, "But what you're saying isn't in the book you're carrying" and asked them to provide reasons as to why they believe differently than what's in the book and all they said was, "It's what I believe" and "it's the truth, fact", would that be enough to overcome that they're accosting you and beating you over the head with what they believe? If they kept following you, yelling you're wrong that you don't believe like they do, how long would it be before you stopped listening altogether because they are showing why no one should ever listen to them? Let's say you manage to get away from them but they found out your name before you did. A week later, you're driving through another town and you see a billboard with your name on it and a message that says "(Your name) doesn't believe what I'm saying and I want to see them die." Or maybe you're flipping through the channels on TV and you see a commercial that not only says the same thing, it uses clips from TV shows or movies of characters being killed, with your name pasted over the face of that character, meaning you're the one being killed. Would either of these make you change your mind and start believing what that other person is trying to force you to believe? Obviously, no, it wouldn't. It would reinforce why no one should listen to that person because they are proving that they are no longer engaging in headcanon. They have crossed the line into obsession and fanaticism. Their own words and actions hurt the point they're trying to make and the more they keep at it, the more they discredit their beliefs. The examples I have given are not far-fetched. They are happening on this wiki and other wikis right now and the "commercial" I listed are videos being posted to YouTube. Edit wars are not healthy for a wiki. Neither are these actions and attitudes. They cross the line from freedom of speech into deliberate harassment and violates the first point in the User Conduct section of the Terms of Use: "You agree not to use the Service to abuse, harass, threaten or intimidate other FANDOM users". These have prompted me to take steps to help restore peace to this wiki. I will provide details shortly. Category:Blog posts